EFF assemblies in North West a chance for renewal

The looming regional and provincial assemblies of the Economic Freedom Fighters in North West province must elect correct leaders.

The assemblies must get rid of dead wood and those who exhibit excessive parochialism.

The incoming leaders should understand that at the centre of the EFF programme of action is the attainment of state power and the implementation of the non-negotiable seven pillars that represent the apex policy position of the party.

The seven pillars include but are not limited to the nationalisation of mines and monopoly industries; free decolonised, quality education; the industrialisation of the country and the continent; expropriation of land without compensation; and the rollback of corruption and all its manifestations.

The EFF will have to position itself as a party that is not solely relying on the youth vote and the underclass in society. The party will have to come to the realisation that it has been occupying that space since its formation.

For it to grow, the party will have to move to the centre of the political spectrum by taking advantage of the fragmented working class signalled by the number of splinter trade unions from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and new formations such as Zwelinzima Vavi’s Saftu.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has been weakened by the formation of Amcu.

The governing party is at its weakest and is left with the rural vote as its only solid support base. The 2016 local government elections were a clear indication that the ANC has lost ground in the urban centres of the country.

The responsibility of the new leadership would be to take the EFF to the rural areas so as to dilute the last remaining support base of the ruling party. The new leadership would also have to come to terms with the fact that the project of taking state power will happen if prospective leaders understand the importance of growing the EFF both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Quantitatively, the organisation will need to rally more people behind its banner in order to topple the ruling party from state power. Qualitatively, the organisation would have to elect the type of cadre who displays values and qualities espoused by (South American) revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

Che defines a cadre as someone who is creative, a leader of high political level who, by reasoning dialectically, can advance his sector of production or develop the masses from his position of political leadership.

The revolutionary continues to argue that a cadre is someone who is always preoccupied by the problems of the revolution and is entrenched in the masses. He further argues that a cadre is someone who has developed both the administrative and political discipline.

However, the great practitioner of the Cuban revolution cautions that a cadre is not simply an upward and downward transmitter of slogans or demands but a creator who aids in the development of the masses.

In the context of the EFF, the revolution means the identification of leaders who will think hard to develop methods that will wrestle state power from the ruling national bourgeois class represented by the ruling party.

Once power is attained, then policies of the EFF must be implemented to improve the lives of the people.

The biggest test of the EFF since its formation is the 2019 national elections that will once more present an opportunity for the attainment of state power. But if the assemblies elect demagogues whose only interest is self-interest, then the strategic objectives of the revolution will not be realised. The assemblies must reject demagogues, wedge drivers and askaris who are hellbent on weakening the EFF from inside.